This course covers in the chronological order each defining step of an entrepreneurial project. It begins with very personal considerations related to getting to better know yourself better so as to decide if you are ready for the multiple challenges of entrepreneurship. It then deals with creativity in order to provide the right set of tools to find an idea with the right potential to disrupt an existing business. We then discuss how to gather a founding team, how to raise money to initiate the project, and how to deal with day to day cash management. Later in the course, we discuss the art of selling, focusing on business to business sales, and how to measure the product launch phase using cohort analysis. Later on, we discuss the challenges of HR in an entrepreneurial environment, and of recruiting at a point where nobody knows your company. We then describe very practical techniques to initiate the international development of a small company. Last, we cover the exit strategy topic.

EB

The course triggered and supported over it's duration structured reflection on my startup ideas, that's much more than I expected!

SG

Jul 04, 2019

Filled StarFilled StarFilled StarFilled StarFilled Star

pragmatic and concret with great tips to put in place asap, strategies which are more middle or long term

From the lesson

The path to maturity

In this module, you will explore the challenges of human resources i.e. recruiting when nobody knows you, training on constantly evolving processes, and managing on a perpetually changing scale.
Furthermore, a step by step strategy to international expansion. Finally, you will understand the importance of exit strategies.

Taught By

Ambroise Huret

Partner at Eleven Strategy & Management

Transcript

So, from the beginning we've been very small but also we have a huge ambition. So, our mission is really to bring the French pastry know-how all around the globe, and we can go slow, as we did for 12 years, and we can go fast, and to go fast, that is our desire now. We had to make a kind of partnership with a huge company and then it was the best choice. It's always the right time to sell at a good price. But, when you start a business, investors will ask you: "What's the exit strategy?". So you have to have the buyers of your new project before launching, basically. When I started Groombox, I always wanted to verticalize the business, not being a sole provider of a service, but being the one who's making it, who's manufacturing it. That was in the pillars of our project. So when it was time to raise some money, to integrate the production process into our business, we had the choice to raise some money from investors, and acquire our own assets to produce the services. And at this time the world leader came in and asked us if we wanted to join the group, so we thought: "it's gonna accelerate our top line growth", we kept a bit of shares, of course, and that was the right choice, to do it. We wanted to go fast to develop that business, and being focused on developing your business is really important, trying to raise some funds along the life of your company takes a lot of energy and a lot of time, disturbing you, somehow, from what you really should be focused on, which is the top line growth and profits. So, I mean exiting, it's always a matter of thinking about your market context, the competitors: are they aggressive? Is your barrier to entry strong enough? Do you want to secure some money for yourself, and your shareholders? Or do you still want to put the old business at risk, and continue to grow it with some external money without cashing in. You know, it's really a personal question.

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